Scrummy first surfaced in the West in the late 20th
Century as yet another progeny of Mah Jong, an ancient
tile game from the Orient. With such an elegantly lucent
premise, to draw and discard for the purpose of creating sets,
or "melds" as in the traditional deck Rummy, this
timeless and insightful ancestor from the Far East continues to
engender descendants around the globe well into the new
millenium.

Although known primarily as a Scroker card game, Scrummy
in its infancy actually resembled the Great Grandfather Mah
Jong more than its contemporary cousins, possibly lending to
its propensity to procreate. Predating Scroker cards, an
embryonic Scrummy developed and hatched in a Woods Hole,
Massachusetts house. In that colonial kitchen, plastic
refrigerator magnates originally arranged to spell "

TOM,"
"RYAN," and "ALLIE"
periodically mutated into such phrases as "LAY
ROMAN TILE" and "TALL NOIRE YAM"
among other proliferations. This rather bulky form of Scrummy
eventually inspired the more compact Scroker deck itself—that in
turn, propagating the numerous families of games contained in
this guide.

Make words out of letters in hand to earn
points and be the first player to "go-out"

Overview

Seven cards are dealt to each player. The
remaining cards are used to comprise a stock and
discard pile. In turn, each player draws from
one of the two piles attempting to create and
play words with the letters in hand. Completed
words may be played face-up in front of a player
in order to earn points. The hand is ended when
one player "goes-out" (plays all of his cards).
The deal then passes to the left and a new hand
begins. At the end of each hand, if any player
has reached a predetermined winning score, the
player with the highest score wins the game.

Setup

Normal 52 card deck—no [Scrokers].

Deal seven cards to each player.

Place remaining cards facedown as a stock pile in the center of
the table.

Turn top card over along side the stock pile as the first
face-up card in the discard pile.

Rules

The player to the dealer’s left is the lead for any particular
hand.

At the start of each hand, each player, in turn, is afforded the
opportunity to exchange one of the cards in his hand with the single
face-up card turned over by the dealer. Play then continues to that
player’s left as if he had just taken his turn. If no players are
interested in taking the face-up card, the lead proceeds with his
turn.

A player always begins his turn by taking a card from one of the
two piles and completes it by discarding a card. The act of
discarding in this game is defined as a player removing one card
from his hand and arraying it vertically on the
discard pile.

A player may begin his turn by taking the top card of the stock
pile and adding it to his hand. Although not obligated, the player
may choose to word, if able, by removing the
corresponding letters from his hand and displaying the
word on the table directly in front of himself as a horizontal
array.

Alternatively, a player may begin his turn by taking any one of
the face-up cards of the discard pile provided that he (1) during
that same turn, plays a word which contains that very card taken and
(2) additionally takes all the cards on top of the card he targets.
Strictly speaking, the discard pile is a breakable array.

A word must be a minimum of five letters when played during a
turn in which a player is "going-out."

At the beginning of his turn before drawing a card, any player
may spellcheck any opponent to challenge the spelling
of a displayed word. One spellcheck loser will always result for
purposes of a point penalty—either the challenger or the player with
the suspected word. If the loser is the misspeller, he must also
return the faulty word to his hand. Additionally, if the suspected
word was played as a player was going-out, each of the players, in
turn, are allotted the opportunity to challenge that one word only.

A hand is normally ended by a player going-out. When the hand is
over, the scores are tallied and the player to the left of the
previous dealer becomes the dealer to start a new hand.

A hand also ends if the stock pile is depleted before a player
goes out. Each player, beginning with the player that is first
confronted with the depleted stock pile, is afforded one "bonus"
opportunity to take a normal turn using only the discard pile. He
may also play any words he may still have in his hand without
drawing any cards.

At the end of each hand, if any player has reached 100 points,
the player with the highest score wins the game.

Scoring

1 point is earned for every card played.

1 point is subtracted for every card left in the hand.

10 bonus points are earned by the player who "goes-out."

10 penalty points are subtracted for losing a spellcheck.

The game is won by the high-scoring player at the conclusion of
a hand in which a player accumulates 100 points.

In the event of a tie, all players remain in the game for a tie
breaking hand.

Four by Four is a simple variation of
basic Scrummy. All words played,
including when a player is going out, must be
exactly four letters in length. Except for this
difference, the Objective, Setup, Rules and
Scoring are identical to that of basic Scrummy.

Tip

A player must be careful to control the total number of cards in
his hand if he wishes to be able to go out. Taking cards from deep
within the discard pile, therefore, becomes a factor.

Texas Scrummy is really just basic
Scrummy with a liberal dash of Tabasco. The
Objective, Setup, Rules and Scoring are
identical to that of basic Scrummy. The
dealer, however, is granted latitude to control
some ingredients to his likin’. All declarations
must be made before play begins. If a dealer
makes no declarations, all the standard rules of
basic Scrummy apply.

Dealer options

Designate a minimum or hard word length requirement for normal
play and/or going out (i.e. "Three card minimum, hard five to go
out" would mean all words played must be at least three letters and
a player must play a five letter word to go out).

Call Chili Peppers hot. In this game, when the
dealer declares "Chili Peppers are hot," the point value of any
given Chili Pepper corresponds directly to the number of chili
peppers depicted on that card (i.e. the [Five-chili-pepper-E] is
worth five points in a word and is worth minus five points if still
in the hand when another player goes out).

Require a discard by the player who goes out.

Allow word extensions. A player may play extensions on any word
currently displayed. If he is extending one of his own words, he
should play the extension directly on that word. If he is extending
another player’s word, he merely places the extension in front of
himself and announces which word he is extending. An extension may
be on the front or back of a word. Generally, no length limits
apply. A given word may only be extend once—the original extender is
responsible for enforcing this rule. In the event of a spellcheck involving an extended word, if the same player
that originally played the word also extended it, only the word in
its extended form may be challenged. If the original word and its
extension are split between two players, the challenger must be
clear about which word is being challenged—the original word or the
word plus the extension. Only one spellcheck loser will result for
purposes of a point penalty—either the challenger or the specific
player responsible for the challenged word. Regardless, both the
original and extended words will be checked for legitimacy. If the
original word is found to be faulty, both the word and the extension
must be returned to their respective player’s hands. If only the
extended word is faulty, just the player who extended the word must
return the extension back into his hand.

Tips

Establish some "caps" beforehand on just how "spicy" a dealer
can make the game. For example, word length minimums should probably
be capped at six. Allowing dealers the latitude to require seven
letter words or larger can adversely alter the character and pace of
the game.

Capping the combined total of the two stated minimums to "8" or
"9" is not a bad idea for most games as well. For example, the
dealer may state "Four card minimum, four to go out."
If the combined minimum had been capped at "8," this would be a
legal declaration. In the same example, "Three card minimum,
hard six to go-out" would not be legal because the combined
minimum equals "9."

The difference between a combined total of eight or nine is
significant, particularly when the going-out requirement is a hard
number, because "9" requires any player wishing to go-out to draw
multiple cards from the discard pile at least once while "8"
normally does not. Recognize also that requiring a discard by a
player going out would change this threshold.

Calling Chili Peppers hot may be a useful gamble for a player
trying to catch up.

Make words out of letters in hand to earn
points and be the first player to "knock" (a
form of going-out)

Definitions

Deadwood: cards in the hand that are not used to make words

Knock: end the hand by discarding a card facedown on the
discard pile

Knocker: the player who ends the hand by knocking

Scrotch: a player’s hand that contains no deadwood

Overview

Ten cards are dealt to both players. The
remaining cards are used to comprise a stock and
discard pile. In turn, each player draws from
one of the two piles attempting to create suit
specific words with the letters in hand. A hand
is ended when one player "knocks:" he turns his
final discard facedown on the discard pile to
indicate he has either scrotch or very nearly
scrotch (he holds less than the maximum allowed
deadwood). Both players then present their hands
to compare the point value of their respective
deadwood. The player with the lowest value
deadwood wins the hand and earns points
accordingly. At the end of a hand, if either
player has reached a predetermined winning
score, the player with the highest score wins
the game. Otherwise, the winner of the hand
assumes the deal and a new hand begins.

Setup

Normal 52 card deck—no [Scrokers]

Deal ten cards to each player

Place remaining cards facedown as a stock pile in the center of
the table

Turn top card over along side the stock pile as the first
face-up card in the discard pile

Agree upon the maximum deadwood for knocking if different than
"two"

Rules

At the start of each hand, each player, beginning with the
non-dealer, is afforded the opportunity to exchange one of the cards
in his hand with the single face-up card turned over by the dealer.
If either player chooses to exchange a card, then play continues
from that point as if that player had just taken his turn. If no
players are interested in taking the face-up card, the non-dealer
proceeds with his turn.

A player always begins his turn by taking the top card from one
of the two piles and completes it by either discarding or knocking.
A player "discards" in this game by removing one card from his hand
and stacking it uniformly face-up on top of the discard pile so as
to completely cover the previous card. No player may randomly
inventory the discard pile at any time.

In order to knock, a player must hold no more than the allowed
maximum deadwood. Immediately following the knock, the knocker
presents his hand of ten cards on the table as a collection of firm
horizontally arrayedwords
clearly separated from any deadwood he might hold. If the
non-knocker wishes to spellcheck his opponent, he must
do it before presenting his own hand. If any of the knocker’s words
are proven to be foul, the appropriate point penalty
is charged and then the non-knocker has the option of allowing the
round to end with no other points earned by either player.
Alternatively, he may require the knocker to pick up all eleven
cards just played and continuing play with a standard discard as if
the knock had not taken place.

After the non-knocker is satisfied that his opponent correctly
knocked, he presents his hand in the same manner. Additionally,
provided the knocker does not have scrotch, the non-knocker if able
may word with any of his deadwood cards by extending one or more of
the knocker’s words. If a spellcheck proves any of the non-knocker’s
words to be foul, after the appropriate point penalty is charged,
the foul word is treated as deadwood. No "after-the-fact"
rearrangement of letters is allowed.

Words must be clean, but hot-’n’-sour
lettering is allowed. As a reminder of how these definitions are
applied, Animal words may not contain Chili Peppers. Only the Lemons
and Limes suits may contain chili pepper vowels. Furthermore,
Lemons, Limes or Animals may not be mixed with each other in any
combination to create a word.

All words must be at least four letters.

Upon a player’s successful knock, the player with the lowest
total deadwood value (not necessarily the knocker) wins the hand,
adds the appropriate score to his cumulative total of previous hands
and earns the deal for the next hand.

The bottom two cards of the stockpile may not be taken. If
neither player knocks before this point, the hand is deemed a
"draw"—same as if both players had equal deadwood values. In a draw,
neither player scores points and the same dealer collects all cards
to deal another hand.

Scoring

Cards used in words have no value for scoring purposes

Winner of each hand scores the loser’s deadwood value, minus his
own, plus any bonuses

The game is won by the first player to accumulate 100 points

Deadwood Value

1 to 5 points for Chili Peppers (cards in this suit are worth
the number of chili peppers depicted on a given card)